Frankenstorm of issues led to long lines, frustration at Monroe polling places

Thursday

Nov 8, 2012 at 12:01 AM

It was as if a hurricane, nor'easter and jet stream collided on Election Day. Readdressing, the voter ID law and poor communications turned the 2012 elections into a clusterjam for many voters and poll workers in Monroe and Pike counties.

HOWARD FRANK

It was as if a hurricane, nor'easter and jet stream collided on Election Day.

Readdressing, the voter ID law and poor communications turned the 2012 elections into a clusterjam for many voters and poll workers in Monroe and Pike counties.

And there was enough blame to go around.

Voters casting a ballot at a precinct for the first time are required to show identification. That's the standard. The identification could be anything from a driver's license to an electric bill.

A state court had set aside for this election the controversial law requiring all voters to show a photo ID. Many voters knew that, but they may have confused a request for identification with a demand for a photo identification.

Poll workers themselves may have been confused too.

"Well, first of all, it is a little confusing for the judges of elections, workers etc. They do this twice a year, and we only ever have a large turnout in presidential elections, which is a real shame," Elections Director Sara May-Silfee said.

Will Landstrom, a poll watcher at the Chestnuthill Township municipal building on Route 715, saw repeated identification issues.

"Whenever a voter asked if they had to show picture ID, something that happened quite often, the poll workers answered that, 'This makes their job 'easier'," he said. "That confused some voters and slowed down the voting process."

Landstrom said that when he asked the judge of elections to ask his poll workers to answer these questions honestly with a straight no, the election judge accused him of being disruptive and threatened to eject Landstrom if he continued asking about this.

While ID requests were the most frequent complaint, family members under the same roof but assigned to different precincts was the most vexing.

For that you can thank the 911 readdressing system that allows emergency personnel to find your home when minutes count.

Here's what happened: Sometime in the past, some voters had been assigned to the wrong precinct. And they've been voting at that wrong polling site ever since. Silfee attributes this to the county's fast population growth over the past 20 years.

When voters changed their voter registration addresses to the new 911-issued address, the system caught the incorrect original voting site assignment and reassigned that person to what should have been the correct polling site.

A roommate or spouse or sibling who didn't change their registration address would not have triggered the correction, and therefore would not been reassigned.

Silfee also said people sometimes have no idea where to go, since they do not reply to correspondence her office sends out.

Some found voter registrations made through Pennsylvania Department Transportation driver's license centers never made it to the voter registration office. Again Silfee said it was the voter's responsibility to make sure they are registered, which is written on a receipt issued by the driver's license center. It says voter registrations are not complete until the county voter registration office reviews it.

"If you do not receive a voter identification card within two weeks, please contact your county voter registration office," the receipt reads.

Provisional ballots should have been provided in cases when a voter's registration was in question. That wasn't done on a consistent basis across the county.

Long lines, while not the rule, could still be found throughout the county.

"I would like to say this about the lines," Silfee said. "Do we build a church for Easter Sunday? Next year we might have 8 or 9 percent of voters for the county show up to vote, which is a real shame because municipal elections are for our local community."

Some believed poll workers copped an attitude during the election. Did they become drunk with power?

"No, just maybe a little overwhelmed," Silfee said. "We do not have these issues in municipal elections."